Still looking for work. I have a very promising opportunity which I am waiting to hear about – should know by the end of the week. If I get the job or not, this is still an opportunity to reflect on what I’ve been up to and what I expect to be up to next.

First of all a question: Why have I not been blogging at all?

I feel like that question almost answers itself. I haven’t felt the need to sit down and share ideas in this format. It is easy to write any old thing (see my twitter for that), and I guess having come up with this page (and it’s predecessor) during the ‘golden age of the game design blogosphere’, there is a standard which I hope to live up to and clearly recently haven’t felt up to.

Instead, new horizons. Messing around with Streaming video games has been a passion recently. One thoroughly bound by time limits, talent limits and most of all bandwidth limits. I have some thoughts about Twitch and streaming in general that I would like to get into and perhaps that might lead to some more posts here. Fundamentally streaming is a creative tool, one that has yet to be explored all that much by the twitch streamers I pay attention to. There’s so much room to grow this form of broadcasting, it’s fun to have been involved for a while now as a viewer and now participant and I look forward to what’s after what’s next.

I’ve found myself in a bit of a gameplay rut where a few familiar titles have stifled my exploration of the billion titles on my pile of shame. Pile of shame, of course, refers to games we own that we want to or should want to play. The familiar is a powerful motivator, definitely for me. Looking at my steam stats is jarring. Over 500 games, with like 2-3 titles played for over 500 hours, 3-4 over 200 hours, and hundreds and hundreds with 15 minutes or less. Sorry game creators! Apparently I’d rather unlock every single thing in both Binding of Isaacs before I try your critically acclaimed title.

What’s next? Who knows. If I don’t get a game job soon I’ll be looking at alternate career options. I have turned down some job offers from game studios who’s games don’t inspire me. I look back on those decisions I made with pride, I just couldn’t do it. Still… will I regret this when I’m flipping proverbial burgers?

Well, that wasn’t so hard was it? A new blog post.

Check me out on twitter https://twitter.com/G_Blott and check out my stream on twitch at http://www.twitch.tv/kidoldman when it occasionally goes live. It would be fun to hang out :)

Working while looking for work is a bit of a challenge. Thankfully I been able to keep busy during this time and have been able to accomplish quite a bit. Being laid off can feel like you just hit a red light, and you have, but instead of idling at the red light I’m running in place, keeping my heart rate up while I wait for the green that’s sure to come next.

I’ve been playing and making games, for sure, but also I’ve used this time to return to the drawing board – literally, as I began to work on illustrating a kids book written by a good friend. I’m taking some online courses and following tutorials, for example learning more about Unity and also some interesting Japanese calligraphic techniques.

I can’t wait to get back to work, but this time off has been less of a holiday and more a training regimen. Taking these kinds of changes as opportunities rather than setbacks has been a very positive move for me. I recommend it! ;)

Really enjoying the League of Legends championship series so far. This match between Copenhagen Wolves and Fnatic is one of the best: (draft starts at 46mins in)

Also the game allows you to make powerful metaphors such as this one on economic theory:

“Mercantilism was essentially equipping the government with several GP/10 items as well as a sightstone, allowing an overall positive balance of trade while maintaining clear access to global objectives and maximization of the use of domestic resources. (see: Chauster’s doctrine of Blue Side)

Netting multiple Drake kills in essence bolstered non-tariff based routes for capital generation without the export subsidies needed in Twisted Fate team comps that instead looked to increase capital output per fiscal interaction.”

There’s a zen approach to most things in video games, though it often has to do with turning off the game and doing something of a more immediate and present nature – like sweeping your floors or tending to your garden (aka. dirty dish ecosystem). There are some games that bring the player to a certain state of mind that is not unlike meditating. Tetris or Cave Shooters are a great examples. Then there are games we can play that are exercises in frustration. Continue reading →

I could put it in more words I suppose, but I am late to the game and many many great things have been written about it already. So, instead of explaining it with words, I did it with music. Like many a crushing high schooler I painstakingly put together a mixtape for the object of my affection.

Critical Distance run a monthly Blogs of the Round Table thing where people with blogs write about games on a central theme. This month’s topic? Origins.

“Character develops itself in the stream of life” – Goethe

It was the summer of 1998, I was hanging out in the dingy basement apartment of a small time drug dealer, watching him smoke something off a piece of tinfoil. I wasn’t there for the drugs, but while sitting on the grubby couch I was getting excited. Things were about to get scary – we were about to play some Resident Evil 2. Continue reading →